78 Schunck . — The Chemistry of Chlorophyll . 
contains phosphoric acid and magnesium. Chlorophyllan is 
easily soluble in common ether, benzol, chloroform, and petro- 
leum ether. The ethereal solution shows the characteristic 
absorption between the lines B and C even when exceedingly 
dilute. All the solutions show an intense red fluorescence, 
such as the alcoholic and ethereal extracts of green plants 
possess ; but they differ from the latter in having an olive-green 
colour like that of plant-extracts after exposure for some time 
to sunlight, while fresh plant-extracts show the fine bluish- 
green tint so pleasing to the eye. Moreover, both the absorp- 
tion-bands between D and F are much darker and wider than 
in fresh plant-extracts, in which they are only faintly indicated, 
but in which they appear with great intensity on exposure to 
sunlight. Hence the author concludes that chlorophyllan does 
not exist as such in plants, but is probably formed in the 
course of the treatment described. The analysis of chloro- 
phyllan gave C 73*34, H 973, N 5*68, P 1*38, Mg 0*34 in 
hundred parts, numbers which do not differ very much from 
those obtained by Gautier for his crystallised chlorophyll. By 
treatment with boiling alcoholic potash, chlorophyllan is de- 
composed, yielding an acid which the discoverer calls chloro- 
phyllanic acid, and which is obtained in bluish-black, lustrous, 
rhombohedral crystals. Its ethereal solution shows a dark 
absorption-band between B and C another a little paler be- 
tween E and F, and between these two three narrow bands of 
different intensities. Chlorophyllanic acid is not the only pro- 
duct formed by the action of alcoholic potash on chlorophyllan ; 
glycerin-phosphoric acid, and a base supposed to be choline, 
were also discovered among the products. Hence Hoppe-Seyler 
infers that chlorophyllan is probably a compound of ordinary 
lecithin, or is perhaps itself a lecithin in which glycerin and 
choline, are united to phosphoric acid and chlorophyllanic acid. 
By treatment with potassium hydroxide at a temperature of 
290°C., chlorophyllan undergoes a more profound change, 
yielding a very peculiar substance which the discoverer calls 
‘ dichromatic acid. 5 It contains no nitrogen, the nitrogen of 
the chlorophyllan having escaped in the shape of some volatile 
